Up

1. Working, in order. "The down escalator is
up." Oppose down. 2. `bring up': vt. To create a working
version and start it. "They brought up a down system."
3. `come up' vi. To become ready for production use.

Up may be Peter Gabriel's best solo album. The long time waiting for it was worrisome to me--he had taken 6 years to make Us, and that album often seemed tired and overworked, not to mention not having the production quality of So which preceded it, and I was worried that after 10 it would be hard to sound fresh.

I was wrong. Up is all the good things about Peter Gabriel. The opening track, "Darkness" starts with barely audible percussion, then explodes into loud, distorted, synth bass sounds, and Gabriel, half singing, half growling, his voice often a plaintive cry, singing of childhood fears and adult paranoia.

"Growing Up" has almost a dance beat to it, a dizzying mix of beat, melody, and again Gabriel's voice, world-weary but still true and clear.

"The Barry Williams Show" is the first single, and most people believe it to be the weakest song of the album. That may be true, but it's a lot better than it seems at first glance. Part of the issue is that the idea of a Jerry Springer-esque talk show isn't as shocking as it would have been in, say, 1997, and thus the lyrics lose a bit of impact, but the song is clever and it's got a great beat. It's the one song on the album that sounds like a conscious effort at a single.

"The Drop" ends the album with a wisp of a song, a delicate melody over a hint of piano.

You need to listen to this album a few times to get its full impact. Once you do, places in the album will open up for you. Every sound, every silence on this album has a purpose. Let it ride over you, and move you. Gabriel shows no signs of slowing down with age--he's incorporated some sounds and textures that are almost industrial and techno, perhaps borrowing back from those who borrowed from him.

This album has been worth the wait, and is proof that Gabriel is one of the most important forces in popular music, and will be vibrant in the 21st Century.

Up, written as an arrow pointing up, or in ascii as ^ (caret), is a value in combinatorial game theory. By convention, the two players in a combinatorial game are called Left and Right, and Left has a miniscule advantage in a game of value up. Symmetrically, the reverse of up, where Right has the advantage, is called Down, and is denoted by a downward-pointing arrow or a lowercase v.

In a game with value up, Left has a move to a game of value zero, while Right has a move to a game of value star. These must be the unique best moves available for each of the two players.

A simple example occurs in Domineering; the following position has value up:

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If it is Left's turn, she must place a vertical domino, and up to symmetry she has two options. She can either place the domino in the middle, leaving the following position with no moves for either player:

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or she can place the domino toward the top or the bottom, leaving

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Since no one can play in the square that is all by itself, this turns out to have value * (see star for analysis).

On the other hand, if it is Right's turn, there is essentially only one move, which also leaves a cornertromino with value star and a single detached unplayable square.

So this game can be written diagrammatically as {0,*|*}, where the values to the left of the pipe are the values of the positions to which Left can move, while the values to the right are the values of the positions to which Right can move.

It turns out that although 0 and * are confused with one another, and in certain situations one might want to move to a * instead of a 0 position, that one never wants to move to the * from this game. Technically, we say that the option to * reverses out. This means that the unique best move for Left is to a position of value 0, while the unique best move for Right is to a position of value *, so this is in fact up.

Following is a clobber position, also of value up. Here Left's pieces are represented by X and Right's by O. A period denotes an empty square.

.....
.XXO.
.....

Now, the only move for Left is to

.....
.X.X.
.....

which has no move for either player, so has value zero. The only move for Right is to

.....
.XO..
.....

Here there is still one move for either player, but no more than that, and this position is easily seen to be {0|0}=*. So the original game has options of value 0 for Left and * for Right so itself has value up.

Positions of value up also occur in more common games such as chess and go but the analysis can be more complicated. Up also occurs in simple forms in hackenbush and konane.

One final note on up is that the value up is born on day 2, meaning that every option (0 and *) of up was born on or before day 1, and at least one of the options was born on day 1 exactly. This condition merits its own writeup, and will not be discussed further here. Suffice it to say that this makes up a very simple game; there are fewer than 30 games born by day 2.

Seriously, they've consistently turned out decent films aimed at all ages. They avoid serving up remakes, reboots, and rehashes of well-worn properties. Their executives talk about the importance of developing characters and stories, and worrying about marketing afterward.

In the summer of 2009, they served Up, about a lonely, grumpy old man who assaults a construction worker, and a lonely, garrulous kid who wants to earn a merit badge. Using heliumballoons, an old house, and a gps they find pulp adventures in a lost world. Sheesh, how come Hollywood hasn't done that one before?

Up has thrills and danger, but it doesn't consist entirely of thrills and danger. And the fate of the world isn't at stake. (Seriously, why does the fate of the world always have to be at stake in American adventure/fantasy movies?) The film also serves up some very funny jokes. It even scores a few of those pop-culture allusions so popular in hip movies and television shows. However, it doesn't clutter them into every available space. The writers (Pixar has writers, not creatives, you can tell) give the characters room to develop and breathe and be human.

The easy approach, the predictable approach, would be to show us a curmudgeon and have the little kid finally evoke his humanity. All right-- Up does that, but not in the expected way. When we meet Carl, he's an adventurous, somewhat nerdy kid who dreams of being an explorer. He meets a like-minded little girl. We follow their life together, to the point of her death, decades later, and then we meet the curmudgeon, the old man who has outlived his wife and (he imagines) their dreams and just wants the twenty-first century to leave him alone. He’s flawed, old, lonely, and sometimes very angry.

Then, faced with a dark, difficult turn of events, he waves the world good-bye, in a manner only possible in fantasy. And it’s good fantasy. The old man does what we might do in the same situation, if reality allowed it to happen.

Of course, it doesn't happen easily. Russell, an eager, nerdy Boy Scout Wilderness Scout gets stuck along for the ride. Their bond grows, predictably but plausibly, as they experience their shared adventures. The lost valley that awaits them contains the answers to some mysteries, too—- but not necessarily the answers they expected.

Pixar's animators have given careful attention to detail. The old house has been filled with the detritus of lived lives. It's the sort of place a couple shared for a lifetime, a place Carl wouldn't want to leave, his refuge from a world that kept on going after his beloved Ellie died, and kept going in ways he doesn't entirely like. You sympathize with the old guy. Even the kids in the audience get him. He's grandpa, and grandpa's having a rough time just now.

Ed Asner imbues Carl with crotchety life, and we become invested in his character's journey, comedic and fantastic though it may be. Newcomer Jordan Nagai, meanwhile, captures perfectly that annoyingly eager kid we all know. The talking dog pack also includes some particularly amusing uses of voice, and Christopher Plummer—well, you'll have to see and hear that performance for yourself. He may not be as fully developed, but he has animated presence and a convincing backstory and the adults, Carl-like, will see where this is heading before the kids do.

Despite realistic and serious undertones, Up does not lack for whimsy or the fantastic-- wild adventure, talking dogs, and the bizarre beast of Paradise Falls. The film uses the absurdities and distortions of animation to advantage, too, for example, when Russell climbs over Carl's time-worn face.

The 3-D effects enhance the experience, but are not necessary. My only complaint here is that they do not consistently work so well with quick movement—-and they will leave some viewers nauseous.

The story, however, will not.

Up tells us that we can pursue our dreams, but it may take us years or even decades to see them realized. It will cost us. And some of them won't come true. Others will, but not as we imagine. Others will leave us disillusioned. And some can be downright corrupting.

And some may be wonderful.

Pixar understands what it means to make a children's film that the adults will enjoy. And it doesn't mean having the adult characters play "keys," as in Ron Howard's desecration of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Here, adult means including layers and revelations and jokes that transcend the kiddie level of comprehension, without interfering with the kids' enjoyment of the events. It means the film addresses real themes, not forced platitudes. We have here a fun fantasy filled with ideas about family, relationships, responsibilities, hopes, dreams, disillusionment, and deciding what's important. As in Wall-E, modern technology has been used in the service of a story that takes a crotchety look at a few things that modern society has spectacularly wrong.

Pixar, arguably, has made funnier films. I don't know, however, if they have made a better film.

Aloft; on high; in a direction contrary to that of gravity; toward or in a higher place or position; above; -- the opposite of down.

But up or down,
By center or eccentric, hard to tell.
Milton.

2. Hence, in many derived uses, specifically: --

(a)

From a lower to a higher position, literally or figuratively; as, from a recumbent or sitting position; from the mouth, toward the source, of a river; from a dependent or inferior condition; from concealment; from younger age; from a quiet state, or the like; -- used with verbs of motion expressed or implied.

But they presumed to go up unto the hilltop.
Num. xiv. 44.

I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up.
Ps. lxxxviii. 15.

Up rose the sun, and up rose Emelye.
Chaucer.

We have wrought ourselves up into this degree of Christian indifference.
Atterbury.

(b)

In a higher place or position, literally or figuratively; in the state of having arisen; in an upright, or nearly upright, position; standing; mounted on a horse; in a condition of elevation, prominence, advance, proficiency, excitement, insurrection, or the like; -- used with verbs of rest, situation, condition, and the like; as, to be up on a hill; the lid of the box was up; prices are up.

And when the sun was up, they were scorched.
Matt. xiii. 6.

Those that were up themselves kept others low.
Spenser.

Helen was up -- was she?
Shak.

Rebels there are up,
And put the Englishmen unto the sword.
Shak.

His name was up through all the adjoining provinces, even to Italy and Rome; many desiring to see who he was that could withstand so many years the Roman puissance.
Milton.

Thou hast fired me; my soul's up in arms.
Dryden.

Grief and passion are like floods raised in little brooks by a sudden rain; they are quickly up.
Dryden.

A general whisper ran among the country people, that Sir Roger was up.
Addison.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate.
Longfellow.

(c)

To or in a position of equal advance or equality; not short of, back of, less advanced than, away from, or the like; -- usually followed by to or with; as, to be up to the chin in water; to come up with one's companions; to come up with the enemy; to live up to engagements.

As a boar was whetting his teeth, up comes a fox to him.
L'Estrange.

(d)

To or in a state of completion; completely; wholly; quite; as, in the phrases to eat up; to drink up; to burn up; to sum up; etc.; to shut up the eyes or the mouth; to sew up a rent.

Some phrases of this kind are now obsolete; as, to spend up (Prov. xxi. 20); to kill up (B. Jonson).

(e)

Aside, so as not to be in use; as, to lay up riches; put up your weapons.

Up is used elliptically for get up, rouse up, etc., expressing a command or exhortation. "Up, and let us be going." Judg. xix. 28.

It is all up with him, it is all over with him; he is lost. -- The time is up, the allotted time is past. -- To be up in, to be informed about; to be versed in. "Anxious that their sons should be well up in the superstitions of two thousand years ago." H. Spencer. -- To be up to. (a) To be equal to, or prepared for; as, he is up to the business, or the emergency. [Colloq.] (b) To be engaged in; to purpose, with the idea of doing ill or mischief; as, I don't know what he's up to. [Colloq.] -- To blow up. (a) To inflate; to distend. (b) To destroy by an explosion from beneath. (c) To explode; as, the boiler blew up. (d) To reprove angrily; to scold. [Slang] -- To bring up. See under Bring, v. t. -- To come up with. See under Come, v. i. -- To cut up. See under Cut, v. t. & i. -- To draw up. See under Draw, v. t. -- To grow up, to grow to maturity. -- Up anchorNaut., the order to man the windlass preparatory to hauling up the anchor. -- Up and down. (a) First up, and then down; from one state or position to another. See under Down, adv.

Fortune . . . led him up and down.
Chaucer.

(b) Naut. Vertical; perpendicular; -- said of the cable when the anchor is under, or nearly under, the hawse hole, and the cable is taut. Totten. -- Up helmNaut., the order given to move the tiller toward the upper, or windward, side of a vessel. -- Up to snuff. See under Snuff. [Slang] -- What is up? What is going on? [Slang]